Sandy Hook crime-scene photos likely to remain private

Published 11:11 pm, Saturday, April 26, 2014

HARTFORD -- With its adjournment deadline closing in, it is highly unlikely that the General Assembly will revisit last year's public records restrictions set up to protect the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, legislative leaders say.

Senate President Pro Tempore Donald E. Williams opposes another bill, part of which emerged from a legislative task force created by last year's law. The group included journalists and state agency attorneys, who reached a controversial compromise after months of hearings and haggling.

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Current law prohibits :Release of crime-scene photos and video images of homicide victims "to the extent that the record could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of the victim or surviving family members' personal privacy."Release of Investigatory techniques and names of minor witnesses.Audio recordings of first responders at homicide scenes describing victims' conditions, (expires May 7, 2014) but does not extend to 9-1-1 or other calls for assistance made by the public. ------Neighboring StatesNew York: Recorded 911 calls are open. Other investigatory information may be exempt if deemed to create an "unwarranted invasion of privacy."Massachusetts: 911 recordings are open, subject to exemptions in cases of active investigations. Records of closed cases are open if their release is deemed not to hinder public safety officials.Rhode Island: All 911 tapes and other recordings are confidential.

When the deadline arrives at midnight May 7, it is likely no action will be taken in the General Assembly. So last year's bill, put together in a late-breaking compromise on the penultimate day of the session, is likely to remain in force. The most controversial section, a provision exempting the recordings of first responders at crime scenes from public disclosure, would end. Crime scene photographs of homicide victims throughout the state, however, would remain prohibited from public view outside of court rooms.

Public records advocates may have mixed emotions about the apparent lack of a 2014 bill, a year after an angst-filled series of responses to the massacre that killed 20 first graders and six adults in the school.

"It's still a very emotional issue, clearly," said 13-term Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury, an open government advocate. "I think my colleagues this year are kind of exhausted trying to deal in that unexpected way last year with all of the Newtown shooting issues and this is one, clearly. I think that's why you're seeing a higher level of retirements. People are just emotionally drained, and there is just no emotional desire to deal with this issue in this session. There's still a lot of work to do on the subject in general, but I don't think anything will happen this year, and I'm actually quite happy nothing else happens this year."

Last spring, Sandy Hook families lobbied lawmakers in an attempt to keep graphic images of their murdered loved ones from showing up on the Internet. Twenty-four hours before the midnight, June 5 deadline, lawmakers led by Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, cobbled together a compromise that banned the disclosure of all homicide photos, as well as the on-scene recordings of first responders. It passed the Senate and House with little discussion and was quickly signed into law by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who said at the time the legislation was a balance between "deeply held beliefs" on victims' privacy and "important public policy values" on disclosures of crime details.

Daniel J. Klau, a Hartford attorney and expert on the First Amendment, said the 2013 legislative action affected Connecticut's reputation as a state known for expanded public disclosure.

"It was definitely a step backwards for a state that was historically a leader to suddenly judge itself as among the most restrictive states," said Klau, who has testified on the issue before the General Assembly this year representing the Connecticut Bar Association's media law section.

Nonetheless, Klau preferred the 2013 law to the one recommended by the legislative Task Force on Victim Privacy and the Public's Right to Know, which would create "very difficult" obstacles for the public to listen to 911 recordings that are currently open.

"Between the two evils, we prefer the 2013 public act, retaining always the hope that next session or in future sessions, the Legislature will come back and address it again," Klau said, stressing the need for regaining eventual public access to images of homicide victims. "Our view is simply that access to these photos from the inception is an important tool the public needs to evaluate police contact, possible errors in prosecution and a whole host of accountability reasons. We have always made clear that access doesn't necessarily mean publication."

"We think that's the best move," VanDeHoef said. "We certainly think that the exemption on homicide photographs needs to be eliminated, but given the current language of the bill before the Senate right now, doing nothing is better than passing that remaining bill."

The bill still on the Senate calendar, which originated in the Judiciary Committee, would prohibit agencies from disclosing records depicting homicide victims who were under 18 when they died. It would also shield the identities of child witnesses; create an appeals procedure for the public to view adult homicide images and listen to 911 tapes, and allow law enforcement to withhold first-responder recordings from the public.

But in the past, 911 recordings have been routinely released following major crimes, according to state law that was reinforced late last year when a Superior Court judge chastised Danbury State's Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III for refusing to release recordings of phone calls received by the Newtown Police Department during the Dec. 12, 2012, Sandy Hook massacre. Sedensky and Newtown Police refused to release the tapes for nearly a year.

When they were finally released on Dec. 4, they raised questions about a delay in town police entering the school to confront the shooter, while detailing calls from teachers and other school personnel who responded bravely to the massacre.

Last week, Sen. Eric Coleman, D-Bloomfield, and Rep. Gerald Fox III, D-Stamford, co-chairmen of the powerful Judiciary Committee, prevented a bill from reaching a vote before a deadline to act.

"I don't believe we had the votes to get it out," Fox said in an interview. "At the end of the day, it's going to be a compromise that is going to be reached, if there is a bill to get done. I would like to see it resolved this year because it's an important issue and it would be good to get behind something so everyone knows what it will be going forward."

Williams, D-Brooklyn, who has announced he is not seeking re-election, said he doesn't want to see more obstacles to release of public records.

"I think the law that we passed last year was the appropriate response to the Newtown tragedy and I am not in favor of the legislation that would impose more restrictions on the release of public information," said Williams, a historian, author and open-government advocate who reluctantly supported last year's bill. "I'm not in favor of the broad restrictions on information regarding witnesses to almost every type of violent crime. I'm certainly not in favor of restrictions on 911 audio tapes, which have proven valuable as a resource to the public in understanding crimes and enacting reforms."

McKinney, whose district includes Newtown and who was crucial in gathering the coalition of legislative leaders at the request of Newtown families last year to enact the law on the next-to-last day of the legislative session, said that keeping the photos of Sandy Hook dead from ever being disclosed is paramount.

In an interview in his Capitol office last week, McKinney said he was never concerned that newspapers and TV stations would publish or broadcast images of the victims, but the Internet makes it very possible for the near-instant dissemination of any picture that could be leaked from State Police archives.

"The reality is if they get that picture, within a click of a mouse it could be on the Internet all over the world and that could never come back," McKinney said. "If we do nothing this year, I'll be comforted by the fact that the victims of Newtown who I represent and I care most about, their pictures will not be public. I'm OK with releasing the 911 tapes and other things. I think moving forward, we don't have to exempt 911 tapes and the like if we make sure we take care of what I think is the most potentially harmful issue for victims of crime, and that is the release of pictures."

Sen. Len Fasano, R-North Haven, a lawyer who was a member of the victim privacy task force and supported the compromise bill, said he hopes it can survive the legislative process that seems stacked against it.

"However, if nothing is done, I think that will also serve the purpose for which I think the issue came up," Fasano said in his Capitol office Friday. He has an amendment prepared that would keep the Judiciary Committee's legislation alive, but isn't sure whether he will introduce it.

Sen. Anthony Musto, D-Trumbull, co-chairman of the legislative Government Administration and Elections Committee, who voted against last year's legislation because he thought it was too restrictive, said he would have liked to see the Judiciary Committee approve his panel's bill. He has concerns about the remaining bill that would prohibit the release of photos of victims younger than 18.

"There are people on both sides of the issue," Musto said. "Getting a majority on this bill in the short session in the last couple of weeks, I think, will be very difficult. It's not a matter of victims' protection as much as it's the public's right to have the information collected by law enforcement, and allow them to view it."

Malloy said at the Capitol Friday that he still supports prohibiting the release of the pictures of the Sandy Hook victims.

"My position has been clear that the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast, vast amount of information needs to be made available," Malloy said. "I have sided with respect to pictures that they should not be made available. In particular the parents or the relatives of the Newtown victims have the right to remember their loved one as they last saw their loved one, but with respect to most of the other stuff that the public has the right to it."